Gunman takes potshots at Dell HQ, chopper search ensues

Labor Day ended with a bang at the Dell headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, after an unidentified shooter fired a number of rounds though its windows.

At least three shots were fired at Building Seven on the Dell campus at 9:30pm on Monday night, with the first floor windows of a breakout room falling victim to some senseless shooter. Local police lofted a chopper to try and flush out the varmint, but have had no luck in apprehending him – and, yes, odds are it's a him, not a her.

A company spokesman explained to El Reg that an unknown number of shots were fired at the building, which was occupied by some of Dell's 24-hour support staff. At least three windows had been broken in the salvo of shots, but that no one on the site had been injured. Two buildings were briefly sealed and searched to make sure there were no trespassers.

"Thankfully there were no injuries," he said. "The local polcie were here in minutes and did a thorough check of the grounds, then we all got back to work."

A witness to the shooting reported that an unidentified person was seen pedaling around the Dell campus on a bicycle with a gun visible. The pedaling pistolero wasn't arrested at the scene and hasn't been positively linked to the shooting.

Some might think that this is just part and parcel of doing business in Texas. After all, the state is notoriously free and easy with firearm ownership, although it has only slightly higher rate of gun deaths per 100,000 that the US average, which is 10.2 unfortunates per year. Do remember, however, that Dell's HQ is in Round Rock, which is part of the Texan progressive reservation of Austin – it's not so much the stomping grounds of trigger-happy good ol' boys as it is of latte-sippin' lib'ruls.

More likely it was someone just saying a reckless, rowdy goodbye to one of the few holiday weekends in the US calendar. Either that or a disgruntled engineer from Microsoft's Surface project got peeved at Michael Dell slagging of Redmond's tablet ambitions. ®